HENRY MORTON STANLEY ORBITUARY

Henry Morton Stanley was born in Wales in 1841 to 1904. His birth name was John Rowlands. He spent most of his childhood as an orphan and he took the name of Henry Morton Stanley when he joined the crew of a ship which headed to New-Orleans. He only married later on in his life in 1890 and died in London on 10 May 1904. Stanley achieved many great things during his lifetime such as finding Livingstone in Africa. This task was set to him by the owner and editor of the Herald . He was set this task because James Gordon Bennett was impressed with the reports Stanley had wired to him of the British invasion of Abyssinia. He covered an array of stories from Egypt to India whilst on his way to leave for Africa in 1870. Eventually he found the very ill Livingstone in Ujiji, and the two explored the northern shore of Lake Tanganyika. After finding Livingstone and refusing to help him find the Nile, Stanley left without him for England and was hailed a hero. Shortly after his return he wrote a bestselling book How I Found Livingstone. Once he had heard word of Livingstones death he decided to finish the search for the Nile, it was completed in 1877 after leaving England in 1874. To find the Nile he followed old slave and ivory trade routes from the coast through Tanzania to Lake Victoria, he then trekked to Lake Tanganyika. He crossed the lake and entered the Congo; he followed one of the rivers and eventually found the Nile. Stanley then made other discoveries whilst finding other explorers in Africa. However well Stanley completed his set out tasks, he still used brutality in his expeditions and in some cases he carried out executions. After being blamed for causing the many casualties in the Scramble for Africa he became a member of parliament in England. He was then knighted in 1899.